(CNS): A US national resident on Cayman Brac who pleaded guilty to possessing an unlicensed handgun appears to have absconded while on bail and a judge has issued a warrant for his arrest. David Meadors (53) was charged last summer after customs officers found 240 rounds of ammunition inside a container where he is building a house on the Brac. That led them to search his current Brac address, where a 9mm Glock and a Smith & Wesson BB gun were recovered. Already convicted over the Glock, Meadors was still to be tried over the ammunition and the air rifle.

But during a case management hearing this week the court heard that Meadors is missing and thought to be in the United States, as immigration confirmed that he had not returned to Cayman after travelling for medical treatment. Although he had pleaded guilty to possessing the unlicensed handgun and is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years, regardless of the outcome of the anticipated trial over the bullets and BB gun, he had remained on bail and been allowed to travel on two occasions.

Meadors’ attorney was expected to plead ‘exceptional circumstances’ with the court regarding his admissions about the Glock, as he has claimed he needed the weapon when he travelled in international waters bringing his boat to the Brac because he would not have been safe .

Despite his failure to return to the Cayman Islands, a trial date for the case was set in November. The crown said they would try and locate the missing and convicted defendant.

The court also heard that the issue regarding Meadors’ bond and sureties would be addressed at that time if he has not returned by then. Three local people had agreed to put up total sureties for Meadors of $23,000, which they could now lose. Meadors had placed a cash deposit with the court of $5,000 and had offered his Brac property as a bond and a charge of $400,000 had been made against that land.

Comments (23)

This guy is at his business daily in Dania Beach or his condo in Hollywood beach. The judge just needs to swear out an Interpol Red Notice warrant to have the US Marshals pick him up and send him back to George Town.

Uproar from who ? The “community” now consist of people of this mans background and profile. They won’t speak out against they own. But they throw jeff webbs name around more than their tennis rackets at ritz carltons court. I would like to see who this man is connected to and why probably the biggest flight risk case in cayman islands history wasn’t deemed to be one by the courts. Imagine if a criminal element had broken into that container before law enforcement could seize it? And he didn’t declare it so he probably wouldn’t report its illegal contents missing, 240 rounds on the road would’ve made for a bloody rest of the year.

This is about the principle. He still gets to go on with his merry life while multiple other people, most being local, would not even get bail with special conditions such as curfew and tracker anklet. This just tells the international spectators that once you have money, you can pretty much get away with anything. I am sure this guy is worth more than $450,000.00 so this is just the cost of freedom to him. Also, where is the uproar from the community?

There is noooo way a caymanian would have been allowed to travel in those circumstances! Why would the prosecution agree to bail! These people should be suied by many caymanians for the bias handling of hundreds if not thousands of cases.